Description of the Related Art
Conventional draw poker is well known and comprises a player being dealt a five card hand. If the player is dissatisfied with one or more of the cards in his hand, he can discard those and draw new cards. The object is to make the highest hand according to the generally accepted poker hand ranking. The priority of winning hands is determined by the conventional rules of poker. As is known to those skilled in the art, five card poker hands are ranked according to the following order with a Royal Flush being the highest winning hand:
1. Royal Flush PA0 2. Straight Flush PA0 3 Four of a Kind PA0 4. Full House PA0 5. Flush PA0 6. Straight PA0 7. Three of a Kind PA0 8. Two Pair PA0 9. One Pair PA0 10. High Card in Hand
Normally, a plurality of players are involved in each deal and the player with the highest poker hand wins. Players may wager tokens, chips or other items having monetary value on the outcome of the hand in jurisdictions which allow wagering on such a game of skill and chance.
Beginning in approximately the late 1970's, electronic poker devices incorporating a video display began to appear in legalized casinos. These devices are commonly referred to as "video poker machines". This electronic version of draw poker is a one player game in which the player is completing against the predetermined odds of the game. The player inserts one to five gaming tokens into a coin acceptor of the video poker machine and then the player presses the "Deal" button to begin the game. The player is dealt a five card hand from a single deck of cards which appear on the video display terminal of the machine. The player then decides which cards to hold and which to discard. The player receives replacement cards for the discarded cards and the resulting hand is compared to conventional poker hand rankings to determine if the player has won. The player receives payment determined by the amount of the player's bet based on the type of poker hand that the player has. A typical payoff schedule for video poker is as follows:
______________________________________ Payout Based on Number of Tokens Wagered Type of Hand One Two Three Four Five ______________________________________ Royal Flush 250 500 750 1000 4000 Straight Flush 50 100 150 200 250 Four of a Kind 25 50 75 100 125 Full House 8 16 24 32 40 Flush 5 10 15 20 25 Straight 4 8 12 16 20 Three of a Kind 3 6 9 12 15 Two Pairs 2 4 6 8 10 Pair of Jacks 1 2 3 4 5 (or better) ______________________________________
If the player's hand has a poker ranking less than a pair of jacks, the player loses his wager.
Video poker machines have become quite popular, both in gaming versions and in amusement versions (an amusement version being one in which no coins or other monetary award is received by the player; rather, points are simply accumulated and the player participates for amusement only).
Due to the mathematical odds inherent in five-card draw poker, there is a limit on the size of the payoff that can be made for any particular poker hand. In the gaming version, the limit is usually 250-for-1 on a Royal Flush for each token bet to ensure a fair return for the gaming establishment. As shown in the above schedule, many gaming establishments provide an increased payout of 4,000 tokens for a Royal Flush if five tokens have been bet. Also, because a single deck of cards is used, players cannot achieve hands such as natural five or six of a kind without the use of wild cards such as deuces or jokers.
Gaming establishments have also been known to provide a progressive jackpot component in connection with electronic or mechanical gaming devices, such as video poker machines. Typically a plurality or "bank" of machines are electronically interconnected to a common progressive jackpot meter. As gaming tokens are fed into each machine, the amount shown on the jackpot meter progresses incrementally until some lucky player achieves a Royal Flush. Normally, only if the player is playing the maximum number of tokens, say five, is he eligible to win the progressive jackpot. (The progressive jackpot amount replaces the typical 4,000 token payout that the player would receive for a Royal Flush). A percentage of the fifth token is allocated to fund the progressive meter amount.
While such video poker games have achieved a higher degree of success, they have not provided the opportunity for extremely high jackpots of the type associated with lotteries and other progressive games of chance. Accordingly, it would be desirable if the video poker game concept could be combined with a progressive jackpot to enhance the lure of the game to the wagerer, thus resulting in increased wagering traffic.
The present invention provides a draw poker game that permits very high payoffs on particular poker hands, thus providing an increased incentive for the wagerer who is attracted by very large jackpots, even if the chances to win them are relatively low.